Global Migration and Extraterritorial Controls: The Case of International Refugee Policy in Ukraine

Countries of immigration-old and new-have developed a range of methods to control the arrival of potential refugees on their territory. Migration scholars have paid increasing attention to the extraterritorial control of migration by Global North countries beyond their borders, while refugee scholars have investigated the ways in which United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) policies may reproduce the exclusion in camps within the Global South. However, studies of humanitarian affairs rarely converge with studies of migration control. Using an institutional ethnography of an European Union-led refugee integration initiatives in Ukraine, this case study seeks to bridge this gap, exploring the consequences of the securitization of migration in this recent destination and gateway to Europe. The findings identify the ways in which local nongovernmental organizations and international humanitarian agencies may inadvertently reinforce social exclusion and extraterritorial control through refugee integration policies transposed from Global North to Global South. The article concludes with suggestions for studying the link between securitization and refugee studies, pointing to a sociospatial definition of the Global South.